Breakthrough in cancer research

One of the most highly researched fields today is the production of carbon nanotubes. Carbon nanotubes hold high promise for many uses from a new generation of cancer treatment down to better electronic devices. The trick for researchers is to find a method of creating the nanotubes in bulk.Researchers at Rice University have discovered a method of industrial-scale processing of pure carbon nanotube fibers. The breakthrough is the result of a nine-year program and the method builds on the processes that have been used by chemical firms for decades to produce plastics.Researcher Matteo Pasquali from Rice said, “Plastics is a $300 billion U.S. industry because of the massive throughput that’s possible with fluid processing. The reason grocery stores use plastic bags instead of paper and the reason polyester shirts are cheaper than cotton is that polymers can be melted or dissolved and processed as fluids by the train-car load. Processing nanotubes as fluids opens up all of … [Read more...] about Rice University Researchers Make Breakthrough in Carbon Nanotube Processing

Supercomputers Powering Life-Saving Cancer ResearchVirginia Tech deployed DataDirect Networks (DDN)'s Massively Scalable SFA 10000 to power a range of research efforts throughout the university, including at Virginia Bioinformatics Institute (VBI) and Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI). The ability of the SFA10000 to cost-effectively handle all of Virginia Tech's high-performance computing needs has prepared the university to enter a new era of breakthrough research, said Harold "Skip" Garner, the executive director of the Virginia Bioinformatics Institute."DDN is helping us move to the next stage of the institute's development with passion, excitement, and a firm commitment to helping address some of society's most important problems in the life sciences and biomedicine. With DDN's technology in place, our researchers are only limited by their imaginations," Garner said.The DDN storage platform is being used by the Bioinformatics Institute in a wide variety of research … [Read more...] about Powering Life-Saving Cancer Research

Biotech Domainex Ltd, specialists in drug discovery solutions, and a research team at The Institute of Cancer Research (ICR), have unveiled a new development in their collaboration to find a new treatment for breast cancer. Domainex is now set to provide lead optimisation services alongside the work being undertaken at the ICR.Scientists led by the ICR’s Professor Alan Ashworth of the Breakthrough Breast Cancer Research Centre, working in close collaboration with Domainex, have discovered drug-like compounds that inhibit an enzyme from the PARP superfamily, whose expression leads to the survival of breast cancer cells. The programme recently received a £4 million research grant under the Wellcome Trust's Seeding Drug Discovery initiative to finance its implementation. Domainex will apply its novel LeadBuilder virtual screening technology to design and select chemical compounds suitable for rapid progression. Furthermore, the company will apply its medicinal chemistry … [Read more...] about Domainex Collaborates With The Institute of Cancer Research

Drug Discovery CANCER researchers in the UK may have stumbled across a solution to reverse antibiotic drug resistance and stop infections like MRSA.Experts warn we are decades behind in the race against superbugs having already exploited naturally occurring antibiotics,with the creation of new ones requiring time, money and ingenuity.But a team of scientists at the University of Salford say they may have found a very simple way forward – even though they weren’t even looking for antibiotics.And they have created and validated several new antibiotics already – many of which are as potent, or more so, than standard antibiotics, such as amoxicillin.Penicillin “A little like Alexander Fleming, we weren’t even looking for antibiotics rather researching into new compounds that might be effective against cancer stem cells,” explains Michael P. Lisanti,Chair of Translational Medicine at the University’s Biomedical Research Centre.“I think … [Read more...] about Major Breakthrough in Battle Against Antibiotic Resistance

Disease Research A new international research project, involving the University of Liverpool's leading eye cancer research group, has identified specific subtypes of ocular melanoma that will help develop improved management strategies and therapies in the future.Uveal melanoma (UM) is a cancer that arises from the pigment cells (melanocytes) in the middle layer of the eye. UM are rare cancers, being diagnosed in about 600 patients in the UK each year, and differ in many ways to skin melanomas.Although treatment of the eye for UM is usually successful through radiotherapy or surgery, up to 50% of UM patients develop metastatic disease, typically in the liver, for which there are currently no effective therapies.In a comprehensive analysis of 80 primary UM, researchers of The Cancer Genome Atlas (TCGA) Research UM group identified and characterised four distinct subtypes that have unique genomic abnormalities, gene expression features, and patient outcomes.This TCGA study, published … [Read more...] about International Eye Cancer Research Project to Improve Future Therapies

Life Sciences Breast cancer cell (Source: NCI)When the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) convenes its annual meeting in San Diego April 12-16, it will attract more than 17,000 participants from 60 countries to review the latest research, discoveries, and technologies in basic, translational, and clinical cancer research.The conference agenda includes an estimated 6,000 abstracts, more than 500 invited presentations, poster sessions, and an exhibition. Scientific award lectures, grant writing workshops, networking events, and educational sessions will round out the comprehensive program. The program will include reviews of innovative research approaches, novel technologies, therapies in the pipeline, clinical trials, and new approaches to cancer prevention.AACR reports that basic cancer research drives cancer medicine and it is increasingly influenced by clinical observations. In addition, the organization sees the fields of … [Read more...] about Cancer Researchers Gather at AACR Annual Meeting

Life Sciences In a breakthrough that could lead to new treatments for patients with malignant melanoma, researchers from Mount Sinai School of Medicine have discovered that a particular protein suppresses the progression of melanoma through regulation of an oncogene, or gene responsible for cancer growth. The study is published in the December 23 issue of Nature.Researchers studied the natural progression of melanoma using mouse and human cells, as well as patient samples and determined that the presence of a specific histone variant, which is a protein that helps package DNA, was directly related to the growth of melanoma. In all instances, researchers observed that as the melanoma became more aggressive, the presence of the histone variant macroH2A decreased. Researchers then manipulated macroH2A levels in melanoma and found that when they removed it in the early stages of the disease, the melanoma progressed more aggressively both in growth and metastasis. Adding macroH2A to … [Read more...] about Major Breakthrough in Melanoma Research

Mathematics/Statistics Novel nanotechnology collaboration leads to breakthrough in cancer researchOne of the most difficult aspects of working at the nanoscale is actually seeing the object being worked on. Biological structures like viruses, which are smaller than the wavelength of light, are invisible to standard optical microscopes and difficult to capture in their native form with other imaging techniques. A multidisciplinary research group at UCLA has now teamed up to not only visualize a virus but to use the results to adapt the virus so that it can deliver medication instead of disease. In a paper published last week in the journal Science, Hongrong Liu, a UCLA postdoctoral researcher in microbiology, immunology and molecular genetics, and colleagues reveal an atomically accurate structure of the adenovirus that shows the interactions among its protein networks. The work provides critical structural information for researchers around the world attempting to modify the … [Read more...] about Novel nanotechnology collaboration leads to breakthrough in cancer research

Industry News Cutting-edge breakthroughs in molecular targeting, translational cancer research, and cancer prevention will take center stage when nearly 17,000 scientists from around the world gather at the Colorado Convention Center, April 18-22, for the AACR 100th Annual Meeting 2009. Key data presented at the meeting will include new advances in personalized medicine that have demonstrated significant patient benefit.The theme of the AACR 100th Annual Meeting 2009 is 'Science, Synergy and Success,' and the opening plenary session will feature insight and perspective from world leaders in cancer research on topics ranging from the cellular mechanisms of metastasis, to cancer prevention, to targeted drug therapies, and personalized approaches.The AACR's Annual Meeting regularly attracts the top minds in academia, industry and government, as well as clinical oncologists, students, cancer survivors, advocates, and other health care professionals. Such a diverse group facilitates a cross … [Read more...] about American Association for Cancer Research Hosts 100th Annual Meeting

Scientists have made a breakthrough in understanding how mitochondria - the "powerhouses" of human cells - are made.Mitochondria, which exist within human cells but have their own DNA, need many different proteins to function - but the process of how they get these has never been imaged in detail.Now a study led by Dr Vicki Gold, of the University of Exeter, has shown that some ribosomes - the tiny factories of cells which produce proteins - are attached to mitochondria. This can explain how proteins are pushed into mitochondria whilst they are being made.The findings open new avenues for studying protein targeting and mitochondrial dysfunction, which has been implicated in diseases including cancer and neurodegenerative disorders such as Parkinson's."Proteins are responsible for nearly all cellular processes. The cell has to make a huge variety of proteins and target them to the precise location where they are needed to function," said Dr Gold, of Exeter's Living Systems Institute."In … [Read more...] about Breakthrough in Understanding Mitochondria